In order to avoid this it has already been proposed, in addition to the rotatable driving of the sponge rollers, to also displace the rollers during transport in the plane in which the rotating shaft of the sponge rollers are situated. This results however in a complicated and expensive construction, while it is difficult to make provision for wringing out of the sponge rollers. At the location where the direction of movement of the rollers reverses the fruits on the moving rollers will further undergo a falling movement, which is likewise undesirable from the point of view of the quality of the fruit.
Further known from the American patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 2,070,043 is a device wherein carriers are each rotated separately on their own axis. The construction shown herein is complicated, while the outer ends of the carriers describe a relatively large arc at relatively high speed, whereby the fruits can be damaged at the moment they come into contact with the carriers, while due to the large diameter of the described circle it is likewise not very well possible for the fruits to be moved forward from one intermediate space to a subsequent intermediate space. Because of the large circle the carriers either cannot move small fruit forward or they will strike against a large fruit situated in a subsequent or preceding intermediate space, or push a large fruit against a preceding fruit, with the recurring problem of loss of quality.
In the Japanese patent specification 58146265 fruits are transported between drivable brush rollers arranged one above another, wherein the fruits or vegetables are also scraped.